urge parliamentary scrutiny of the state within a state of the Khakis, especially the dreaded spy agency (DGFI). The interference of the Khakis into state politics will once again jeopardize institutionalization of elective democracy, good governance and secularism. The rogues fear social justice activists, critics, politicians and journalists too - Joy Manush!

Monday, December 24, 2012

A trial for the future of Bangladesh

Bangladesh independence activists demand trial of war criminals

HAROON HABIB

The war crime tribunals were set up
to address a deep-seated national demand for justice, but they are facing a
hostile campaign by vested interests at home and abroad

December
is a landmark month for Bangladesh.
It is the month of the liberation of the country from Pakistan in
1971. And it is also a reminder of a great national tragedy — it was during the
same month that year that the marauding Pakistani army and their local agents
systematically eliminated hundreds of secular intellectuals just before the
liberation on December 16, 1971. It capped a nine-month orgy of violence
against civilians in which three million people were killed, 400,000 women were
raped and 10 million people fled for bordering Indian States as refugees.

This year, as the country celebrates four
decades of its independence, it also faces the task of completing a historic
trial against the perpetrators of those horrific crimes.

The
trial was long overdue. The events following the bloody coup in 1975 in which
Sheikh Mujibur Rehman was assassinated, and the divisive politics thereafter,
caused many delays in reckoning with the cruelties. When Sheikh Hasina came to
power, this was on her agenda. The move towards justice began on March 25,
2010, under a domestic law framed in 1971. But the path is yet not easy.

In
the crucial last year of its tenure, the Hasina government faces, on the one
hand, street protests by opposition parties positioning themselves ahead of the
elections, and on the other, organized opposition against the trial by the
fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami, the party that had opposed Bangladesh’s
independence, supported by the Khaleda Zia-led Bangladesh Nationalist Party
(BNP).

Jamaat-e-Islami
and its militant students wing, Islami Chatra Shibir, have chosen the route of
organized street violence. Their aim is clear — they want their key leaders,
now on trial in war crimes tribunals, to be set free. Jamaat cadres — no one
can forget that the party sided with Pakistan
army in all conceivable ways to foil the national quest for freedom — have gone
as far as to attack the police, snatching their rifles and setting on fire
dozens of police vehicles in Dhaka and across
the country. They also attacked the Law Minister's motorcade.

The
spate of attacks across the country has left several hundred policemen injured,
many of them hospitalized with serious injuries. The government sees these as
ominous signs of a plot to destabilise the country and foil the trial. The
manner in which the police came under attack was somewhat unprecedented, and
astonishingly, in most cases, the police lost the battle to the attackers.

Neither
have the arrests of a few hundreds Jamaatis stopped the violence. Jamaat, which
has grown over the years to become the most organized cadre-based party both in
terms of its funding and structure, launched the offensive from November,
continuing it into the nationally sensitive month of December. In the backdrop
of sustained street violence, secular, pro-liberation forces are seriously
concerned that if such violence in the name of democracy is not checked, it may
emerge as a single biggest threat to country’s liberal polity and security.
There have been calls for a ban on Jamaat, but there are concerns too that
proscription might send the party underground, with more dangerous
consequences.

The
main opposition BNP has not condemned the actions of its Islamist ally. Rather,
it has been providing vital support to Jamaat’s game plan, to the extent that
even BNP sympathizers are concerned that the “poisonous weed” of Jamaat’s
theocratic and medieval political and social agenda might ultimately eat up the
very vitals of what remains of the party’s remaining liberalism.

Alongside
the unrest for the release of those on trial, Bangladesh has been witness to a
separate set of violent protests by BNP and Jamaat for restoration of the
caretaker government system. Pro-government activists, such as the Awami League
student wings, have only added to a volatile situation by taking it upon
themselves to thwart the opposition protests.

A
number of cases in the war crimes courts are awaiting verdict, but the trial
process has come under an increasingly hostile campaign at home and abroad. The
head of one tribunal stepped down on December 11 after a controversy over his
leaked Skype conversations with an expatriate war crimes expert. The tribunal
chief’s e-mail and Skype accounts were hacked and the private conversations
were published by a pro-opposition newspaper. The resignation, just ahead of
case judgments, came as a big shock to vast majority of people who want justice
done, but were celebrated as a “victory” by the Jamaat and BNP.

A
total of 10 accused — most are Jamaat leaders — are presently in the dock.
Jamaat has reportedly deployed significant sums of money to influence the US policymakers
against the war crimes trial. Law minister, Shafique Ahmed, alleged that the
government has evidence to show that Jamaat has appointed lobbying firms in the
U.S. and the U.K. to
frustrate the trial. The minister alleged publicly that Mir Kashem Ali, a
Jamaat leader now facing trial, and also the key person behind the fast growing
Islamic Bank, as also the head of Jamaat’s media house, had paid $25 million to
the U.S.
lobbying firm Casadian Associates.

These
challenges to the war crimes trials have, in one sense, reawakened the
“pro-liberation” forces, making them aware that there is no room for
complacency. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who sees a conspiracy to malign her
government at home and abroad, has vowed to move ahead with the trial to fulfil
a national obligation.

While
the Hasina government can take credit for some unique achievements towards
secularising Bangladesh and improving relations with India, some high profile
scams, including alleged corruption in the Padma bridge construction, the high
prices of essentials, and the bad image of some ministers and field level
activists, have all seen its popularity come down. The opportunity is being
utilised by those who want this government to collapse even ahead of the next
election, so that the vital war crime trial suffers a setback. The scrapping of
the caretaker government system, and the U.S. displeasure over the government’s
treatment of the Nobel Laureate and Grameen Bank founder Muhammed Yunus have
complicated the scenario for Prime Minister Sheikha Hasina.

It
is to be hoped that the fast developing situation will not impede the landmark
trial, vital for healing a deep national wound. The trial is not only crucial
for Bangladesh,
but also for the region. If it stalls, there is every possibility of a
resurgence of religious extremism in Bangladesh that is bound to affect
its neighbours. Born out of a national war fought against religious bigotries
and military chauvinism, Bangladesh
cannot allow on its soil the tragedies being experienced by Afghanistan and Pakistan.